


Lift

by Reddish_Enemies



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-24
Updated: 2018-08-24
Packaged: 2019-07-01 20:22:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15781434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reddish_Enemies/pseuds/Reddish_Enemies
Summary: And of course, bed bound and frail, Kaiba still had total control over this situation. It was actually something Yuugi admired about him but right now it set him on edge. Because he was about to do something extremely dumb and well? Kaiba asked for it.





	Lift

Two months had passed since Kaiba left and Yuugi hadn’t gotten so much as an e-mail.

Sure, he'd set Yuugi up as a designer in the digital entertainment department. Taken him up to the KaibaCorp space station that one time. He was never bored and the pay was great for a college student. But it wasn't what Yuugi came here for. Not entirely.

     He’d come here because Kaiba asked him to.

It was just after he won a student game competition at one of the biggest video game conventions in the world. Duel Monsters was still the most popular game by far but there were other avenues for gaming. Kaiba wanted to be at the head of the pack.

“You seem to know what you’re doing,” was probably the closest thing to a compliment he’d ever gotten from Kaiba. So he accepted the job.

     But then Kaiba _left_.                 

     Yuugi didn’t care about their joint game being shelved; Kaiba wouldn’t let anything he hadn’t personally tested go to market. That was one of the terms in his job offer.

     But he did care that Kaiba left to chase after _him_.

     Yuugi was…conflicted. It wasn’t like he didn’t want to see _him_ too. It wasn’t like he hadn’t spent years trying to understand exactly what he felt for _him_. And no, he still couldn’t quite put a name on it. 

     After the whole mess with Aigami and the puzzle was gone for good, Yuugi had to try and move on. Maybe one day they would meet again but he had to be prepared if they didn’t.

It wasn’t easy. Still wasn’t. But he tried. Besides, what if _he_ didn’t even remember anything if they did meet again? That was something Yuugi knew he couldn’t handle.

     But Kaiba was willing to take that chance. _Kaiba_ of all people. It didn’t make any sense, not when the meeting wouldn’t even matter if _he_ didn’t remember.

     Kaiba would risk _everything_ for something that might not even be possible.

     It was one thing for Kaiba to do what people said was impossible; he did that all the time. It was another thing entirely to watch as he flung himself into an untested machine to go who even knew where to find _him_.

     Dueling wasn’t enough to get Yuugi’s mind off of Kaiba’s absence. It reminded Yuugi of _him_ and in turn, it reminded him of Kaiba.

He wasn’t sure how he felt about that.

     Like now, when he was in the middle of an update on the Castlevania game his team was overseeing the production of. KC had recently acquired the property and, though the last few games left a lot to be desired, it was nothing his team couldn’t fix.

     But even in the midst of trying to figure out how to retcon three games of extremely dubious quality, Yuugi found his thoughts drifting back to Kaiba.

     “—you think, Director Mutou?”

     Yuugi snapped out of his daze and looked down at his tablet. A flush rose to his face when he saw he had been idly doodling Duel Monsters. There wasn’t a note in sight. Just Dark Magicians and some sort of dragon-type monster.

     “Can we strip out the time travel and still do that?” he asked with the most authority he could muster. The last thing he remembered was a huge debate on something about time travel.

     “Ah…we didn’t think of that…”

     Yuugi let out a sigh. Good. Enough of the conversation had made it into his head.

     The meeting dragged on for another hour after that. He forced himself to ask questions and jot things down; he was the director, after all.

     But that didn’t stop him from feeling elated when he was finally free. It was nine o’ clock. There’d probably be a drinking party or something like that but considering Yuugi had been handpicked by Kaiba Seto himself, he didn’t really need to get in good with the higher ups.

     Besides, he had plans already.

     Yuugi hung around in the conference room until he was sure the hallways were empty. Then he took the stairs up a few floors to his office. He dropped his shoulder bag on the couch before slumping down next to it.

     His office was more colorful than many of the others he’d visited. When he asked about the drab décor, Kaiba had simply given him a company credit card.

     “If it’ll help you work, buy it,” was all he’d said before going back to work on the latest Duel Disk firmware update. Yuugi kept it reasonable, only going for a bright purple couch, carpet with a pattern Honda described as “nauseating”, and some matching office supplies. They were small changes, but it made him feel more like he belonged.

     He’d never expected Kaiba to care about something so small.

     Yuugi groaned and threw an arm over his face. There Kaiba was again. He was gone but he was always _there_.

Half of his L-shaped desk lay untouched, the half where his plans for the joint game with Kaiba were. There wasn’t any dust; the cleaning crew had careful instructions to not let any dust build-up. Something about Mokuba’s allergies if Yuugi remembered right. But that meant his desk always looked as though he had just set things down, like Kaiba would walk in at any moment and turn his frantically written down ideas into something viable.

But that wasn’t going to happen any time soon.

For the first time in Yuugi’s life, games across the board weren’t enough.

     He went under his desk for his and pulled out his gym bag.

     Working out was the only thing that seemed to quiet the “Where’s Kaiba?” Kuribohs that insisted on floating around in his head. They were the same Kuribohs that compelled him to take the long route to the elevator, the one that went past Kaiba's office and sometime living quarters.

     The lights were off, just as Yuugi expected them to be. Instead of sulking, he actually got on the elevator and took it the ten floors up to the employee gym.

     For the next few hours, at least, he wouldn’t constantly be wondering what Kaiba was doing.

Or if he actually met _him_.

    

    

 

      A new shipment of cards and other game accessories had come in to Kame Game and Yuugi was supposed to handle the restocking. He stopped every so often to look at the new structure decks and see what was new in the realm of Spellcaster cards.

     The morning went smoothly until he came across a box of dragon-themed cards.

     Up until then, his plan had been working pretty well. But right now, he had half of the store left to restock and he was turned to stone by the mere sight of dragon themed cards.

     _Great_.

     Yuugi worked as quickly as he could, hoping he would be done when Grandpa came down to man the counter when they opened at ten o’clock.

     He wasn’t.

     Regulars trickled in and though there weren’t many people in the shop, he couldn’t focus on actually finding what they asked for. He was slow and Grandpa noticed but said nothing, often taking over his transactions entirely.  

     “Why don’t you take a break?” Grandpa pulled him aside just after two o’clock, his face etched with concern. He wouldn’t push—he never did because Yuugi usually just told him things.

     But Yuugi couldn’t go to him with this.

     “Hey Grandpa, why am I always thinking about my friend that’s also my boss now that he’s gone?”

     …nah. Even if Grandpa _did_ have issues like that, he would have just talked to the person. But right now, Yuugi didn’t even know where the hell Kaiba was.

     So instead of asking any strange questions, Yuugi said, “I’ll be in the back for a bit.”

 

Yuugi sank into the lone folding chair in the storage room and sighed.

Once upon a time, he’d have reached for the Millennium Puzzle, and probably talked with _him_. Now, he reached for his phone. It was nowhere near comparable but he could probably find someone to talk to for a few minutes.

Before he could figure out which app he was going to idly scroll through, he got a video call from Anzu.

“It’s been a while! Wait, where are you?”

There were signs all around her and she smiled.

“The airport!”

“Where are you off to now?”

She smiled and said, “Home! Just for the summer but Expulsion saw me at their gym in New York and wanted me to dance with them on their live tour! But,” she brought her phone closer to her face, the same way she always got a bit closer when she had something important to say.

“Are you okay, Yuugi?”

     “Well…” If he said yes, that would be a lie and he didn’t want to lie to Anzu.

     “Ah—I didn’t think they’d open check-in this early. I’ll be home tomorrow so I’ll talk to you then, okay?”

     He nodded, knowing that now he would _have_ to tell somebody. Anzu wouldn’t let him get away with not telling the truth, not when she could see something was wrong through a low quality video call over bad airport wi-fi.

     “I’ll see you!”

     Yuugi tried his best to sound perky but it fell flat. Even still, Anzu gave him a small wave before the call cut off.

     He was too exhausted to work out by the time Kame Game closed its doors for the day. Trying to figure out strategies for decks he was unfamiliar with was more tiring than he remembered. Then again, he was used to agonizing over adding a single card into hi— _their_ deck.

     _Kaiba probably never had that problem_ , he thought somewhat bitterly. Then he sat up in his bed with a start.

     Why was he even thinking about Kaiba’s dueling strategies?

     This was so far out of hand. Too far.

     And Yuugi had absolutely no idea what to do about any of it.

    

     That was, until a month or so later when Yuugi took the long way from the elevator on his way from the gym and there was a light on in Kaiba’s office.

     He stood still for a moment, his gym bag forgotten.

     That couldn’t be right. Kaiba was…well, no one knew where Kaiba was but he wasn’t in Domino City.

     Should he knock? Call?

     “Yuugi?” Mokuba’s voice snapped him out of his daze.

     Mokuba looked…tired, but not in the same way Kaiba had at his age. No, there was more to it.

     “Are you okay?” Like Yuugi was in any position to be asking anyone else how they were doing. But he did it anyway; maybe there was something he could help with.

“I’m fine. I was just…” he gestured towards the door to Kaiba’s office, which Yuugi realized he was blocking.

“Sorry!” He stepped aside. “But are you sure you’re okay?”

Mokuba looked startled but he stayed quiet.

“I-It's just that no one's been in here for months."

Mokuba hesitated for a moment.

"Come inside," he said.

Yuugi followed Mokuba past the countless excellence awards and Blues Eyes White Dragon themed art to find that, of course, Kaiba had an entire medical suite attached to his office.

And of course, there he was in the lone bed in the room.

He didn’t look well, at all. He was even thinner than usual and the dark circles under his eyes were far more pronounced.

 Yuugi’s chest felt tight, the way it did when he spent too much time dwelling on why Kaiba’s absence bothered him so much. Except, he was back. And hurt.

     “…when did he get back?” Yuugi finally forced out.

     “This morning.”

     Yuugi nodded, knowing that was probably all the information Mokuba had. And it wouldn’t answer his biggest question.

     “The doctors don’t know how long it’ll be before he wakes up. There’s no brain damage or anything so…he’ll wake up when he’s ready.”

"Do know where he’s…?”

"I know what he tried to do but not if that’s actually what happened. And he probably won't tell me when he wakes up,” Mokuba sighed. “You can stay here, if you want. I’ll be up front.” Then he was gone.

There was just Yuugi, Kaiba, and the beep of his heartrate monitor.

Had Kaiba actually seen _him_? If so, it was only fair. After all, no one else saw _him_ back then. If anyone deserved to, it was Kaiba.

But Yuugi wasn’t happy. He couldn’t be. Not when Kaiba looked like this.

 

 

Every day after his workout, if it wasn’t too late, Yuugi spent a few hours in Kaiba’s room.

He needed to be there when Kaiba woke up. He had questions that needed answering.

“How’s Castlevania going? Were you able to salvage it?”

     Except, he wasn’t expecting a greeting—if that could be considered a greeting—when he walked into Kaiba’s room tonight.

     “I—I mean we’re finalizing some of the early levels but you’re…!”

     “Yes, Yuugi, I’m awake.”

     He pulled a chair up next to Kaiba’s bed. There was no way he could stand up for this conversation.

     “Where have you been?”

     Yuugi wasn’t sure if it was the fact that Kaiba was exhausted or something else but his gaze was much less intense.

“You know where I’ve been, Yuugi, so spit it out.” His words were callous but they lacked their usual bite.

“…you saw him, didn’t you?” Yuugi finally asked.

“Not exactly.”

“What does that mean?”

Whenever a plan didn’t quite work out, Kaiba almost immediately set about fixing it; Yuugi had seen that happen plenty of times. But now? Kaiba didn’t even have a laptop open.

“It didn’t work. And while I may have figured out time travel, I can’t change human biology. Not yet, anyway.”

Was that…a joke? But Yuugi brushed aside his shock and focused on the more important part.

“Wait, _time travel_?”

“Yes, time travel, Yuugi. Keep up. So I saw _him_ but...it wasn’t the person we knew.”

He’d never seen Kaiba look so…defeated.

“It wasn’t enough,” Yuugi said. Judging by Kaiba’s silence, it hadn’t been.

“It’ll have to be,” Kaiba said finally.

     “You didn’t have to push yourself so hard.”

     Yuugi couldn’t place the expression on Kaiba’s face after he said that so he kept talking.

     “ _He_ wouldn’t want that. He’d only want to face you at your best.”

     Silence filled the room but it wasn’t the comfortable silence Yuugi enjoyed while they worked. There was tension here and he didn’t like it.

     So he decided to leave. Maybe not the best way to deal with things but sometimes, it was the safest way. Before he was halfway to the door, Kaiba called out to him.

     “Wait.”

     He stopped walking but wouldn’t turn around. Not when the tightness in his chest was coming back.

     “I know it wasn’t _him_ but…he said you aren’t a replacement.”

     Yuugi wanted to run, doubly so when he heard Kaiba’s next question.

     “What did he mean?”

     Kaiba never asked what something meant unless he was trying to decipher Yuugi’s notes. But now? Asking what Atem meant when he said something that was less cryptic than Yuugi wanted it to be?

     He needed to leave.

“Answer me, Yuugi.”

     And of course, bed bound and frail, Kaiba still had total control over this situation. It was actually something Yuugi admired about him but right now it set him on edge. Because he was about to do something extremely dumb and well? Kaiba asked for it.

“I like you. Do with that what you will.”

Then he left.

**Author's Note:**

> Life just. Happened a lot while I was supposed to be writing this and I am 100% not happy with it and definitely plan to come back to it when time allows me to so...here it is!


End file.
